Indigenous imprisonment rates

Crime facts info no. 195

Between 2000 and 2008, the imprisonment rate for Indigenous Australians increased by 34.5 percent (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008). In 2000, the imprisonment rate was 1,653 prisoners per 100,000 Indigenous adult population, which increased to 2,223 prisoners per 100,000 Indigenous adult population in 2008. The increase in imprisonment rates for Indigenous people was almost seven times that of non-Indigenous people in the same period. This represents a five percent rise in incarceration rates for non-Indigenous people when comparing the two groups and an increase from 123 per 100,000 adult population in 2000 to 129 per 100,000 adult population in 2008. In 2000, Indigenous people were 13.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous people and this rose to 17.2 times more likely in 2008.